Finding that love connection can sound pretty difficult at first, but sometimes it just takes being in the right place at the right time.
We asked readers to share their love stories and you responded with enthusiasm. We received so many responses, in fact, that we had to edit them down quite a bit for the paper… but fortunately, there is infinite space on the web! Enjoy!
(And if you missed your chance to submit your story for the paper, feel free to add it in the comments.)
staged interest
I walked on stage to sing with a band at an outdoor pub. Mike saw me. He then sent me a message online asking if it was me that he saw. I wasn’t too interested because his picture wasn’t so great. But, I invited him to a concert. He brought a date, who was someone I had been sort of dating too. However, when I saw him in person I thought, “He looks better in person!” He ditched his date and came back to see me. We became friends, started dating, fell in love and more than two years later we still get the giggles and make our friends gag with our lovey-dovey antics.
—David Lee and Mike Hollis, St. Petersburg
parallel marchers
During the March on Washington I was living in DC on Capitol Hill. I had about 10 people staying in my apartment that weekend. One of whom was dating Ed’s Best friend. I even had a party during that weekend that Ed attended but we still did not meet until the march itself. He was standing by himself and I was trying to get away from people I had met earlier that wanted to get together again. So I went over to Ed pretending to know him and found out that out o the million people there we actually had a lot of the same friends and had been running parallel all weekend without ever meeting. Moving here had even more coincidences
—David Schauer and Ed Briggs, St. Petersburg
persistence pays off
Gary met me at Sawmill Campground and asked me out nine times before I said yes. He was very persistent. He was very quiet when I met him, and those who know Gary know he’s not very quiet. I would come over to talk and he would excuse himself and go somewhere. Later on he opened up to me and would talk to me. It took him about eight months for him to agree to go out with me. He took me out for my 19th birthday and I never left after that. It’s been about 2 1/2 years now.
—Scott Peterson, Tampa
personal ad leads to soul mate
I came out at the age of 52, after 20 years of marriage, when I fell in love with a lesbian who had recently lost a long-time partner. She and I were together for three and one-half years, and then broke up, and I spent the next eight years enjoying single life.
In early 2000, I realized that I might be ready for another relationship. At the urging of friends, I placed a personal ad in Creative Loafing. One of the two responses I got was from Anne (Mickie) Howell. We talked on the phone, and planned to meet for dinner and a movie, in Tampa’s Old Hyde Park.
She walked into the restaurant using a cane, and I learned that she often relied on a wheelchair. She asked me how I would feel, being seen with a “crip.” After assuring her that I think everyone has some disability, and some are just more visible than others, we ordered our dinners and talked some more.
She then revealed that some friends from out of town were going to be at the Gulfport Casino that night for a dance, and wondered if I’d mind going there instead of seeing the Bette Midler movie we had planned on. I said OK, but by the end of the dinner she had changed her mind again. She wanted to go to the movie, to find out “if we laugh at the same things”!
During the movie, she reached for and held my hand. I was startled, but thought, “Oh—okay; this is nice!” And then, after the movie, she drove me from her handicapped spot near the theater to my car in the parking garage a block away, and before I got out of the car she kissed me. I found myself returning the kiss. It was two days before Valentine’s Day.
A few weeks later, at the Gasparilla Art Festival in Tampa, she bought us “Friendship Rings,” and in June, 2000, on her 60th birthday, we celebrated our Holy Union at Christ the Cornerstone Church. I was 63.
We bought a house in Gulfport, and acquired additional family members in the form of a dog and two cats.
Had she not passed away in 2004, I know we would still be friends, lovers, and soul mates.
It was four more years before I realized that I might possibly be ready for another relationship. I knew it would be different—they always are—but I also knew I would have Mickie’s blessing. We always wanted the best for each other; we knew how to love.
—Eunice Fisher, St. Petersburg
status = unimportant
My friend Debbie wrote a one act play that she wanted to put on at the North County Gay and Lesbian Center in San Diego. She asked me if I would be interested in being one of the characters, since I was one of the only actors that she knew.
She said that it would be her and one other guy. I told her sure, and what does he look like? She said she would take me to his work to introduce us. He was this skinny, adorable, dorky, guy that seemed really shy, and I crushed on him immediately. I told my friend how I felt and she said that she wanted me to be aware of something before I pursued it.
She told me that he was HIV positive, but that didn’t matter. I told her that that doesn’t change my feelings, and should we get intimate, then we just have to take more precautions. When we eventually started rehearsing, I had to stop being the shy one, because he was actually shier than me. I would flirt, non-stop, and it seemed like he was just not interested. But he didn’t seem irritated and he actually seemed to egg it on, like he liked the attention
One night after rehearsal, we were all sitting outside the Center and out of the blue he gave me a quick kiss and left. I was dumbfounded for a second and then jokingly yelled after him that he was evil. Well when it came to performance night, there were also some poetry readings after our little play, and he was one of the people reading.
He read a very emotional story about how he contracted HIV from his ex. After he did his reading, I went up to give him a hug, and he said “Are you still interested in me now that you know?” I said “I already knew, and I have always been in to you”.
We have been together for 11 years now.
—Shannon Snyder, Orlando
right place, right time
I moved back to Ohio in January 1993 and shared a house with my ex-lover. The closest gay bar was an hour away in West Virginia. I met Mike there one night and we seemed to hit it off. Mike lived 30 minutes from my house in Ashland, Ky. I gave him my phone number and when he called the next day my ex never gave me the message. He started dating my ex and a month later my ex dropped him for a friend of mine. Mike came to the house to talk to my ex and talked to me instead. Almost 17 years later and we are still together.
Dale Micha, Orlando
don’t miss the license
We met at an AIDS benefit in Wisconsin in June 2002. We were seated in a large room and spotted each other across the room. I left the room and sat on a bench outside the room in the hallway where I could see the door. He came out and sat next to me on the bench and we began talking, He said he was hungry and wanted to get a bite. I told him there was a Subway across the street, He asked if I was hungry also and I told him no, I had already eaten, but I would go with him if he liked. He accepted and we went over to Subway and I watched him eat and talk to a guy he knew in the next booth who was eating with some other gay friends.
He finished and we walked around town talking to get to know each other. Everyone we met that day thought that we had been a couple for some time. We made plans to see each other again but he lived a few hours away so it was touch and go for awhile.
We eventually met at my hang out and he talked to some of my so-called friends that filled him full of bullshit about me. He never bought it. He saw through their crap, but never told me about the stories until years later.
So, thanks old friends for helping me find love. We moved in together when I quit my job and moved 200 miles to Milwaukee to be with him and be his house husband. I gave up everything for love and have never looked back. We went to Dubuque, Iowa in August 2009 and got married with our youngest sons as our witnesses. We cherish everyday together in each other’s arms, with much love, until death do us part.
We have our marriage license framed on the wall for all to see—and if someone doesn’t see it, we point it out.
—Randy Bahr and Bill Edwards
electronic attraction
I was a freshman in college walking through the mall with my friend and looking for a job. We walked past the RadioShack and saw the giant “Now Hiring” sign. It was Oct 31, 1997.
I asked to speak with the manager and out of the backroom walks a confident and very serious woman. Here I was in my ripped jeans, chewing gum and probably a hat on my head asking for a job application. To hear Pat tell the story she will make much to do about the gum chewing.
Anyway, I got the job, and started working there part time. We survived the holiday season and our friendship grew stronger. She was in the closet and I was living with my boyfriend at the time, but for some reason I found myself drawn to her. I would stop in on my days off and bring her lunch.
Then in March of 1998 I was in Europe with a calling card to call home and I found myself wanting to call her instead of him. By that point we had both realized that our friendship had grown into something more. We began spending more time together out of work. I stayed away from home more often and in June I finally moved out and into my own place.
After that, things happened the way they were supposed to. We bought our first house; I came out to my family and dragged her kicking and screaming out of the closet. But still to this day she would rather be back there.
Now here we are 2010, we own another house, two businesses and while there were hard times, I know that she is and will always be my best friend. I know that no matter how bad things get, she will always be the one I can turn to and she will be there for me.
—Erica Franco, Orlando
trains & automobiles
My boyfriend, Branden and I have a unique story. We met on the internet dating site OkCupid.com about a year ago. He was living with his family in Clearwater and I was with my red dapple dachshund near Downtown Orlando. I had been on what seems like 1,000 dates in the three years before we met, but never felt sparks fly with any of the guys I hung out with. I was a man on a mission. I knew exactly what I was looking for and I wasn’t willing to settle for less.
Branden and I clicked immediately—I could feel our hearts synchronize the moment we began talking. Initially, we said we were just going to be “e-friends” due to the distance, but being a highly intuitive person, I knew that arrangement wouldn’t last long. We talked on the phone, instant messaged and texted for a long time. We wrote letters discussing everything under the sun and became good friends before I eventually asked him to come to Orlando to meet me.
He jumped at the opportunity, but our first date almost didn’t happen. The weekend prior to the big day, Branden’s car was stolen while he was shopping at a Tampa Bay area mall. This bit of misfortune turned out to be exactly what we needed though to build the foundation for a successful relationship. While others might have buckled under these circumstances, and I know quite a few guys who would have used them as an excuse for not pursuing a long-distance relationship. Branden and I saw our circumstances as an opportunity to show each other how much we were capable of loving. He promised me a date and he intended to deliver.
The following weekend, Branden moved heaven and earth to see me, insisting that he still come to Orlando although I could have easily driven to Clearwater. Cars, taxis, buses, and eventually an Amtrak train were all that we needed. He arrived for our first date smiling and with a box of chocolates. Every weekend after that day for three months I would pick Branden up at the Orlando Amtrak station to spend the weekend together. Distance was never an issue—even with his car stolen—because we never made it one. It was our train station romance; something straight out a classic film or a Nicholas Sparks novel with a gay twist.
Eventually, the insurance settlement came through for Branden’s stolen car and he bought a new one. Picking him up at the train station was no longer necessary. In September, he moved to Orlando so we could begin building our lives together. Each time I look at him, I can’t help but think about those first dates and the work we were both willing to pour into cultivating something real. Train stations will always have a special place in my heart.
—Jessy Hamilton, Orlando
